make your choices tonight!!
LEXINGTON, N.C. - A life insurance company cheated the widow of late race car driver Dale Earnhardt out of millions of dollars by refusing to pay up when he died, a lawyer for Richard Childress Racing said in the opening statements of a civil trial Wednesday.
The insurer, United of Omaha, argued the $3.7 million policy was never in effect because Earnhardt had not taken the required physical before he died in a crash at the Daytona 500 in 2001.
"We made a fair decision. We made a reasonable decision. There's no question we made an unpopular decision, but we did what we're supposed to do based on what occurred," company lawyer Stephen Coles told the jury.
But Richard Childress Racing - Earnhardt's car owner, which is pursuing the matter on behalf of the family - has accused the insurer of failing to properly investigate before denying payment just days after the driver's death.
An insurance company has "a duty to find out why a claim should've been paid," said attorney John Morrow.
He said in his opening statement that Earnhardt had passed a physical for NASCAR shortly before his death.
Richard Childress Racing took out the policy on Earnhardt's behalf and made a $5,000 payment in January 2001.
Earnhardt died in the last-lap crash that Feb. 18. The next day, the race team received a second invoice - dated two days before the crash - for another $5,000 payment toward the annual $21,645 premium. Childress Racing made the payment believing the policy was active, according to the complaint.
The $3.7 million was part of a $7.2 million benefits package, according to the driver's contract. A $3.5 million policy with a second insurer, set up in 1996, was paid to Childress and signed over to Earnhardt's widow, Teresa.
But United of Omaha sent a letter dated Feb. 21 to Childress Racing saying it would not pay the $3.7 million because the application was incomplete "and now cannot be completed," according to the complaint.
Coles said that, despite the payments, the policy hadn't attached to the 49-year-old Earnhardt, one of the most popular drivers in the history of stock-car racing, because he had put off requests to undergo a physical.
"Just because somebody files an application doesn't mean they get a policy," Coles said. "It's not automatic. It's especially not automatic when it's the amount of money in this case."
Childress Racing's lawsuit alleges that the insurer operated in bad faith by not investigating completely, and that the denial of benefits without a "reasonable" investigation amounted to unfair and deceptive trade practices. Childress' attorneys indicated earlier this week that they should receive the full $3.7 million payment, along with compensatory and punitive damages.
Aside from its claim that Earnhardt never took the required physical, United of Omaha also denied responsibility for the actions of the two contractors who set up the policy. Childress has reached a partial settlement with the two, though the agreement is sealed. Davidson County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Taylor has issued a gag order in the case.
Childress and Bill Patterson, executive vice president of Childress Racing, both testified about the payments made to the Shuford Insurance Agency of Concord, which helped arrange the policy.
Childress testified that he was "pretty upset" when the letter arrived denying the claim.
"All I know is we had the checks where we paid for insurance," he said.
gr, thanks for running this weeks thread.
GRRRRR - nice pics!
| Order | Car | Driver | Make | Sponsor |
| 1 | 0 | Mike Bliss | Chevrolet | NetZero Best Buy |
| 2 | 01 | Joe Nemechek | Chevrolet | U.S. Army |
| 3 | 45 | Kyle Petty | Dodge | Georgia-Pacific/Brawny |
| 4 | 136 | Boris Said** | Chevrolet | CENTRIX Financial |
| 5 | 88 | Dale Jarrett | Ford | UPS |
| 6 | 38 | Elliott Sadler | Ford | Pedigree |
| 7 | 10 | Scott Riggs | Chevrolet | Valvoline |
| 8 | 34 | Jeff Fuller** | Chevrolet | Mach One Inc. |
| 9 | 97 | Kurt Busch | Ford | Smirnoff |
| 10 | 16 | Greg Biffle | Ford | National Guard/Charter Communications |
| 11 | 175 | Mike Garvey** | Dodge | Jani-King/Rinaldi Air Conditioning |
| 12 | 31 | Jeff Burton | Chevrolet | Cingular Wireless |
| 13 | 11 | Jason Leffler** | Chevrolet | FedEx Freight |
| 14 | 43 | Jeff Green | Dodge | Cheerios/Bugles |
| 15 | 32 | Bobby Hamilton Jr.** | Chevrolet | Tide |
| 16 | 5 | Kyle Busch* | Chevrolet | CARQUEST/Kellogg's |
| 17 | 22 | Scott Wimmer | Dodge | Caterpillar |
| 18 | 77 | Travis Kvapil* | Dodge | Kodak/Jasper Engines |
| 19 | 9 | Kasey Kahne | Dodge | Dodge Dealers/UAW |
| 20 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet | DuPont |
| 21 | 192 | Tony Raines** | Chevrolet | Front Row Motorsports |
| 22 | 2 | Rusty Wallace | Dodge | Miller Lite |
| 23 | 41 | Casey Mears | Dodge | Target |
| 24 | 19 | Jeremy Mayfield | Dodge | Dodge Dealers/UAW |
| 25 | 8 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Chevrolet | Budweiser |
| 26 | 4 | Mike Wallace | Chevrolet | Lucas Oil Products |
| 27 | 66 | Hermie Sadler** | Ford | Ace & TJ Show/Peak Fitness |
| 28 | 200 | Carl Long** | Chevrolet | Buyer's Choice Auto Warranties |
| 29 | 21 | Ricky Rudd | Ford | Motorcraft Genuine Parts |
| 30 | 91 | Bill Elliott** | Dodge | Stanley Tools |
| 31 | 09 | Johnny Sauter** | Dodge | Miccosukee Gaming & Resorts |
| 32 | 12 | Ryan Newman | Dodge | ALLTEL |
| 33 | 20 | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet | The Home Depot |
| 34 | 13 | Greg Sacks** | Dodge | Sacks Motorsports |
| 35 | 18 | Bobby Labonte | Chevrolet | Interstate Batteries/Madagascar |
| 36 | 37 | Kevin Lepage** | Dodge | Underdog |
| 37 | 25 | Brian Vickers | Chevrolet | GMAC/ditech.com |
| 38 | 17 | Matt Kenseth | Ford | DeWalt Power Tools |
| 39 | 7 | Robby Gordon** | Chevrolet | Fruit of the Loom |
| 40 | 27 | Kirk Shelmerdine** | Ford | Freddie B's |
| 41 | 23 | Mike Skinner** | Dodge | Bill Davis Racing |
| 42 | 49 | Ken Schrader | Dodge | Schwan's Home Service |
| 43 | 6 | Mark Martin | Ford | Viagra |
| 44 | 42 | Jamie McMurray | Dodge | Texaco/Havoline |
| 45 | 29 | Kevin Harvick | Chevrolet | GM Goodwrench |
| 46 | 99 | Carl Edwards | Ford | Scotts Roundup |
| 47 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | Lowe's |
| 48 | 1 | Martin Truex Jr.** | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops/Tracker |
| 49 | 07 | Dave Blaney | Chevrolet | Jack Daniel's Country Cocktail |
| 50 | 40 | Sterling Marlin | Dodge | Coors Light |
| 51 | 15 | Michael Waltrip | Chevrolet | NAPA Auto Parts |
| 52 | 50 | Jimmy Spencer** | Dodge | Arnold Development Companies |
| 53 | 44 | Terry Labonte** | Chevrolet | Kellogg's |
Thanks for the ping!
40 31 Jeff Burton+ Chevrolet Cingular Wireless GoPhone 186.883 28.895 -0.914
41 40 Sterling Marlin+ Dodge Coors Light 186.677 28.927 -0.946
42 4 Mike Wallace+ Chevrolet Lucas/Wide Open Energy Drink 185.395 29.127 -1.146
43 37 Kevin Lepage Dodge Underdog 188.278 28.681 -0.700
Did not Qualify
44 11 Jason Leffler Chevrolet FedEx Freight 187.611 28.783 -0.802
45 32 Bobby Hamilton Jr. Chevrolet Tide to Go 186.968 28.882 -0.901
i need some remedial help. why did the fedex car not qualify even though it had a better time than 40th - 43rd?
Whew, the go-cart race is over.
Now we can git down to some real racing!
bump
I see my homie broke the track records AGAIN during qualifying, this time shattering all the records as well as surpassing the 28 second mark. He's go the most poles of any driver.. average start is 2.11!! (If only he could finish as good as he qualifies)
;-)
That's m'dawg.
Bones
Nice job, DEI!
Bwaahahahahahahahahahahah!!!
there was some other race on earlier today. I dont know what it was, because they never said the name. but there was some lady driver named daniella patricks or something that they kept talking about.